an interesting day

Oh my, it has definitely been an interesting day. As I speak, there is still a hustle and bustle around my house at 2:00 in the morning. My relatives from Los Angeles just got here to go to my brothers graduation which will be starting in about 7 hours. But it has been a good day today - a happy day. In the midst of all, I think I have learned a lot and come to see a better picture of what God is doing in my life.

It didn't start out all jolly though. But I did get to spend some good time praying this morning, and I got to start an online discipleship group for some of the guys in Epic Movement so we can stay accountable for reading the Word and praying. But most of this morning was spent cleaning my room for my relatives to stay in. Cleaning is always a tense and stressful time in my house. My mother is a clean freak so you can just imagine the intensity. But theres something about cleaning that is relaxing, I think its the sense of control you have. But it can be really peaceful to in the midst of all the stress.

After that I went over to my cousins' house and helped them make a picture board and a powerpoint for my brother's and cousins graduation tomorrow. Then, I played some Wii Fitness on their Nintendo Wii. Dude, that's intense. I think I'm going to be sore in the morning. It made me do some yoga. Push-ups, running in place, and aerobics. It was kinda fun haha. I never knew a game system could be so entertaining and healthy.

Anyhoo, now for the good stuff. So after all this fun. I went home and prayed for an hour before I met up with my older cousin who wanted to meet up together and pray. He is going to the Philippines with his wife and kids on Monday, so he wanted to get together and pray for his trip. Before we prayed, we talked for a while about different things like the church, our families, and other stuff. We talked about the vision that my pastor had for our church. My pastor has the vision of having 210 Cell group leaders by the year 2010. Kinda crazy considering we don't even have 210 members in our church. But 210 is such a small thing for God. So, I told my cousin about the things God has been revealing to me about how to see the growth of our church and see the 210 people my pastor had a vision for.

I think that it really comes down to the vision of the simple church. Reading through Jaeson Ma's book the Blueprint, I"m really beginning to see that the simple church is really the way we will reach out to the lost and bring them the gospel. Basically, the idea of the simple church is that it will operate in much of the same way that the New Testament church of Acts functioned. The church in Acts did not have a centralized church head like we see today in our church. They functioned in small groups, and these small groups multiplied and reached out to thousands. Acts talks about how thousands of people would come to Christ through the efforts of the early church.

God totally wants the church to reach out to the lost and bring them to Christ. His vision for simple churches starts on the campuses, but he talks about how it can be used as a supplement to centralized churches as well. Just imagine cell groups functioning as simple churches outside of the main church service. The leaders will build up and train leaders to lead the church service, then they will move on and start another simple church. Than the leaders that they raised up will do the same thing. It's spiritual multiplication! Jaeson Ma talks about the differences between the church today and the simple church. The church today is like an octopus. If you cut off a tentacle it will grow back again. But if you cut off the head, it will die. The church today is centralized. The simple church is like a starfish. You cut it in half, two starfish will grow. You cut it in 50 pieces, and you have 100 starfish. You need both the centralized church and the simple church. So imagine having simple churches working under the centralized church. You could have 210 leaders leading simple churches in no time.

And as I was talking to my cousin today, I realized the magnitude of 210 leaders. To have 210 simple churches would in a sense imply a church that is at least 2000 people if not more. It's crazy to think that our church of about 120 people growing to be that big in two years. But through prayer, evangelism, discipleship, and training through the simple church, we could see it happen. For man it is impossible, but for God anything is possible. And I'm thinking like what would this look like in my church. Well, we already have cell groups. If we treated these like simple churches and developed leaders who then go on and start their own churches, we could begin to see exponential growth. Then if started discipling and training up the youth, they would go onto their schools and reaching out to their classmates and friends. This could have the potential of reaching even more people. Then, you think about the college ministry. My church is supporting Epic Movement. If I disciple and train up leaders who then go on and train and disciple others, we have a chain of simple church leaders that covers everyone from adult, youth, to college students. And what about the children? The possibilities are endless.

This vision is just for my church. Now imagine this on the college campus. Say we start with Epic Movement reaching the Asian Americans. Here, we would raise up and train up leaders who lead the movement on their own. Then, we would move on and start simple churches for the international students, the Native Americans, the Latinos, the African Americans, the engineering students, the art students, the different dorms, the list could go on. But basically the point is that through simple churches, we have the potential to spiritually multiply and spread all around our campuses, cities, and nations bringing the gospel to the lost. It's crazy!

Jaeson Ma talks about the three R's. Revival. Reformation. Restoration of the New Testament Church. It all begins with prayer (Revival). 24 hour prayer is the catalyst for revival. But you can't just have revival without social change. When we bring change to society through evangelism, we bring about reformation. With revival and reformation, we will see the Restoration of the New Testament Church. It's crazy to think has revealed his blueprint for revival, reformation, and restoration to Jaeson Ma. If you are passionate about revival and bringing the gospel to the lost in your campus, church, family, etc. read the Blueprint. It will rock your world!

Anyway, I say all this because this August, I have the opportunity to go to a training on how to strategize on how to reach the campus through simple churches and mapping the campus. It's crazy because I really wanted to go to this conference before, but I didn't think I could because I thought I was going to be in Japan still. It turns out that our trip to Japan got shortened by 10 days which means that door to go to this conference just swung wide open. It's crazy how God provides. In addition to this, there is a prophetic conference coming up next weekend that I really want to go to. I was really excited to go to it and was about to sign up when I found out that my friend couldn't go anymore. Because he couldn't go, I wouldn't have a place to stay and wouldn't be able to go either. I was kind of bummed. But it turns out, that one of my other friends was able to get us free tickets and so I might be able to go after all. It's crazy how God puts everything together in place for those who wait. God is soo good.

So anyhoo, me and my cousin were talking about all this stuff, and he told me about his trip to the Philippines and how he wanted to pray for his family and friends that he would be seeing and how he really wanted to bring them the gospel. So we started praying for them. But before that, we just started singing together and just worshipping God. The Holy Spirit totally filled us up with His presence. I could totally feel the electricity in my body. It was crazy. Worship really has an amazing effect of ushering in the Spirit.

So we prayed and talked all together about 2 and half hours. It was so awesome. My body and mind were so tired from the things of the day. But my Spirit was soaring. Isaiah 40:30-31 says, "Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
I wasn't really planning on writing tonight. But I was really inspired to through some family and friends. Like I said, my family came in from LA about an hour ago now. My grandpa came up to me and just started talking to me about endtime prophecy. We talked about it for a while, and I told him about the revival that was coming before the Christ came back. And somehow we started talking about abortion and how it is the third major genocide against babies. The first was when Pharoah tried to kill Moses by having all the males killed. Then Herod tried to kill Jesus by having all the males killed again. This genocide against the babies is happening again in the form of abortion. Every generation where there has been a genocide of babies, there has been a great revival. Satan knows that is going to happen, and he is trying to stop it from happening. But God is protecting those who will lead this revival. We likewise must fight of our unborn babies. I learned a lot of this stuff reading form the Blueprint also, so again its good, check it out.

Another thing that really inspired me was reading my friend Sara's Blog. It really touched me how she has continued to trust God in the midst of the adversity she is experiencing. I know a lot of the spiritual growth I have experienced in just the last three months started when she had a random layover in Phoenix on her way to Hawaii. Ever since, we went to the 24hr prayerhouse at ASU. Everythign has changed for me. I received my first prophetic word there, and Sara really challenged me to get spiritually ready for Japan.

I remember a week later becoming more aware of things of the spirit and having lots of questions. I remember wanting to talk to one of the guys who started 24 hr prayer. That night a friend and I went to the 24 hour prayer house and there was no one there. But we stayed and prayed anyway. About an hour later, the guy that I was hoping to talk to showed up, and we ended up having a long conversation. Ever since then, it has been these kind of crazy divine appointments that God has been setting up. God has been so good to me, and I don't even know why sometimes.

God has blessed me with great family, friends, and so much more. I know that I would not be here today without the his goodness to me. It's crazy to think He would show me so much love. Oh another thing that I just remembered, as I was talking to my cousin about the Philippines and stuff, he talked to me about a great uncle I have in the Philippines. Apparently, this great uncle used to be possessed by a demon and would do crazy supernatural things like drinking 5 gallon water jugs, drinking liquor like nothing, and lifting heavy logs easily. However, when he got saved, God totally transformed his life. My cousin told me how this great uncle now prays in the Spirit, heals, prophecies, and even wakes up at 4 every morning to preach.

This one particular story about him really gets me. Apparently, this great uncle had a vision of the place he was going to preach to next. This great uncle had never been there before, but my cousin had used to live there. My great uncle described perfectly the place he was going and the things that had happened there to my cousin without ever being there. My cousin also told me about crazy stories of the spiritual warfare for weeks my great uncle faced in delivering a nephew from a demonic spirit. and he also told me other stories of his gift of discerning spirits.

This guy is legit, and it just reminds me that as Christians we too have access to this power through the Holy Spirit. It's crazy to find out that these people are in my family line. The Christian foundation that I have has been laid and passed down by the generations before me. Thinking about all these things, I pray that I can be like Elisha and have a double portion of the Spirit that was on the ancestors that was before me....which reminds me the first prophetic word I ever had talked about how I was going to be like Joshua and Elisha.....interesting. I will definitely have to look back and listen to that and share that word I received.

Anyhoo, I am kind of just rambling off. But I just wanted to share some of the interesting things that happened to me today. God is good. He loves you! It's just crazy to think that is grace is sufficient for you and me. Despite our short comings, our faults, and even our weaknesses, God has accepted us and he sees us as acceptable. In our weaknesses, He is strong.

God, thank you for love. Thank you for answered prayer. Thank you that in the midst of the storms of our life, you are still their holding our hand. Thank you that your provide and that you bless us even though we have done nothing to deserve it.

God,I pray that the desires of my heart would be in tune with yours. I pray that you would give me your desires as I delight in You. You sovereign over all things, and you are Holy! You are the creator of the universe, the firstborn of all creation. All things were created by you and for you. Thank you for you unconditional love.

Thank you for family, and for generational blessings you pass down through them. I pray that you would break down generational curses, and that you will bring unity to the family. God, bring unity to the church. God, may we be a generation that stands in the gap. We will stand on behalf of our generation and confess our sins. We confess our idolatry, our sexual promiscuity, or pride, our selfishness, our doubt. God give us the faith of a child. You said that even the faith of a mustard seed could move mountains. God remove the mountains - the barriers in our lives that keep us from you. We want to make your name famous and proclaim your name to the ends of the earth.

But teach us first to love you and delight in your presence. Teach us to enjoy and cherish the moments we have with you. Teach us to truly love you with all our hearts, souls, strength, and mind, and from the outpouring of your love for us, may you help to love our neighbors as ourselves. We want to see Jesus lifted high! A banner that flies across this land. That all men might see the truth and know. You are the way to heaven! God all glory and majesty belongs to you. Humble our hearts in adoration of you. You alone deserve our praise. Thank you for your blessings - for you love! Amen.